IndiGo still looking into December flight chaos, action on officials after probe

Key Highlights

• Acting on the Centre’s direction, IndiGo removed Jason Herter, Senior Vice President in charge of the Operations Control Centre (OCC).
• The government has also imposed penalties totalling over Rs 22 crore on the airline. advertisementBetween December 3 and 5, IndiGo cancelled 2,507 flights and delayed 1,852 others, impacting more than three lakh passengers across airports nationwide.
• The disruptions were attributed to the airline’s inadequate preparedness to implement revised Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) norms for pilots.
• As a punitive measure, the DGCA curtailed IndiGo’s winter schedule by 10 per cent until February 10, prompting the airline to vacate 717 domestic airport slots.
• Of these, 364 slots are from six major metro airports -- Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad -- with the highest number surrendered at Hyderabad and Bengaluru, sources said. The vacated slots are spread across the January-March period, with 361 slots each relinquished in January and March, and 43 in February.